Melanie Evans November 16, 2009 Hospital board members and trustees might want to take a look in the mirror the next time they wonder why healthcare quality still needs improvement. ... FULL STORY
David Burda November 16, 2009 What is it about doctors and money that gets everyone so worked up? Should physicians work for free because healing the sick and injured is reward enough? Or can you never pay physicians enough for what they do for mankind? What's fair, of course, is somewhere in the middle, but the tug-of-war over... ... FULL STORY
Joe Carlson November 16, 2009 Imagine a time when healthcare unions were endlessly fractured, when labor leaders spent as much time launching public relations attacks and raiding parties against one another as they did trying to organize new workers. It shouldn't be too hard to imagine—that was the reality only a year ago. ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as many as 3,900 people have died from the H1N1 influenza and more than 98,000 children, adults and seniors have been hospitalized with the virus since April—numbers that are roughly three times higher than earlier estimates. Further,... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 The American Red Cross says it is addressing widespread problems in the organization’s blood supply that were found by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA in a 2008 investigation of 12 Red Cross facilities found violations such as failing to take steps to control suspect blood or blood... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 Mark Leavitt, the physician who has been serving as chairman of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, will retire effective March 31, 2010. Leavitt has acted as chairman since 2004. The health information technology certification body said in a news release it is... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, will retire at the end of 2011. Pardes, 75, announced his decision— which was made public in a letter released by board chairman John Mack—to the board of trustees last week, said spokeswoman Myrna Manners. The... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 The CMS in 2008 paid more than $92 million in incentives to doctors under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, up 155% compared with $36 million paid in 2007. PQRI is a voluntary program that allows physicians and other eligible healthcare professionals to receive incentive payments for... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 The American Hospital Association issued a report challenging the notion that regional variations in healthcare spending are a road map to controlling costs. Officials in the Obama administration and some lawmakers have pointed to places such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, where health outcomes are... ... FULL STORY
Melanie Evans November 16, 2009 Hospital board members and trustees might want to take a look in the mirror the next time they wonder why healthcare quality still needs improvement. ... FULL STORY
Jean DerGurahian November 16, 2009 Hospitals will face even greater quality pressure as the CMS begins to require public reporting of outpatient measures on its Web site Hospital Compare. ... FULL STORY
Jennifer Lubell November 16, 2009 In considering legislation to fix Medicare's troubled physician payment formula, House Democrats face two potential problems: lack of cooperation from the Senate if they do pass the bill and the wrath of doctors if they don't. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely November 16, 2009 Even the widely lauded goal of improving employee wellness faces obstacles to being included in healthcare reform. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea November 16, 2009 Environmental mandates may follow healthcare reform as the next big revolution that providers face, with some healthcare providers working to have a say in the matter. ... FULL STORY
Joe Carlson November 16, 2009 With hospital administrators working to address the myriad biological considerations swirling around the H1N1 flu pandemic, they might have overlooked one big social effect of the virus: the leverage it can lend to labor unions. ... FULL STORY
Gregg Blesch November 16, 2009 Scott & White Healthcare took ownership of the only other hospital in its home base of Temple, Texas, earlier this year, planning to turn it into a children's hospital. It appears the Federal Trade Commission has different plans for it. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely November 16, 2009 For the 25,000 low-income Hoosiers on a waiting list for Indiana's health insurance program, there might be some good news in the next few weeks. Indiana has about 4,000 slots opening up in its popular Healthy Indiana Plan. ... FULL STORY
Joe Carlson November 16, 2009 Imagine a time when healthcare unions were endlessly fractured, when labor leaders spent as much time launching public relations attacks and raiding parties against one another as they did trying to organize new workers. It shouldn't be too hard to imagine—that was the reality only a year ago. ... FULL STORY
David Burda November 16, 2009 What is it about doctors and money that gets everyone so worked up? Should physicians work for free because healing the sick and injured is reward enough? Or can you never pay physicians enough for what they do for mankind? What's fair, of course, is somewhere in the middle, but the tug-of-war over... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 “Like the House, the Senate wants to curb health spending by limiting payments to doctors and hospitals. Such simplistic limits have not worked before—and they won't in the future ... Congress should create a Medicare payment system that rewards doctors and hospitals for using data,... ... FULL STORY
Jim Guest November 16, 2009 Almost weekly, news reports bring us fresh examples of business practices in healthcare that defy any notion of appropriate ethical behavior: doctors paid eye-popping sums by drug or device companies to “conduct research,” give speeches or “author” ghostwritten articles for... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 The article by Project HOPE senior fellow Gail Wilensky (“Slow spending, improve quality,” Nov. 2, p. 24) identifies a clear need to develop an integrated approach to caring for the elderly with multiple chronic diseases. ... FULL STORY
Deborah Friberg November 16, 2009 Infections hurt patients and represent one of the primary opportunities in healthcare to improve outcomes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 1.7 million patients get sick from an infection they contract while in the hospital, and 100,000 of them die. ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 Mike Milbrath, administrator of the Mayo Clinic’s Waseca (Minn.) Medical Center, died Oct. 24 after being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, though hospital officials say there’s no way to know if he picked up the disease at work. He was 54. Milbrath was not eligible to receive the... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 David Hoyt, who chairs the University of California at Irvine’s surgery department, has been named the new executive director of the Chicago-based, 77,000-member American College of Surgeons. He is scheduled to start Jan. 1, 2010, and will succeed Thomas Russell, who has held... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 HCA, Nashville, said that CEO Richard Bracken will add the title of chairman on Dec. 15, when former CEO Jack Bovender Jr. is scheduled to step down as chairman. Bracken, 57, replaced Bovender, 64, as CEO on Jan. 1, and also holds the title of president. Bracken joined HCA in 1981 and... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 What's the deal with hospitals and Ponzi schemes?Last winter, Outliers learned that several hospitals were apparently unwitting investors in New York money manager Bernie Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, including North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Great Neck, N.Y. ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 Gallows humor in a hospital may not be appropriate when applied to an individual patient who has just met a tragic end, but it can be beneficial if it allows doctors and medical staff to get past a difficult moment and be at their best for the next patient. It also helps if they feel remorse about... ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 “I don't get my identity from being a senator. I may get some of it from being a doctor … a real honorable profession.” ... FULL STORY
